Is the partnership between African-Americans and pro-Palestine activists rapidly beginning to unravel? Are Black activists finally realizing their anti-racism agenda has been co-opted by Hamas-loving terror-deniers with whom they have little or nothing in common? And will this unholy alliance finally come to a violent crescendo this week at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago – where 100,000 anti-Israel protesters intend to disrupt the coronation of America’s first female/Black/Indian-American presidential candidate?
That’s the tantalizing prospect as influencer-advocates from both sides begin to clash over competing – and fundamentally incompatible – visions for their self-described liberation struggles. And while this conflict may involve a rainbow tribe of anti-Israel agitators, the skirmishes between Black Americans and Arab-Americans reveal the fragile fault lines among the intersectional far Left.
Take a series of social media posts on TikTok last week. In them, Arab activist-influencers – many raw and unhinged – essentially demand their Black counterparts abandon campaigning for Kamala Harris because of her support for the “genocide” in Gaza. “The way y’all switched up and did a 180 on Palestinians … the second we have a black woman run for office is disgusting,” declared TikTok user @dan1ahan. “Keep Palestinians’ names out of your f-cking mouth when defending your decision to vote for Kamala,” added an Arab-American creator menacingly, in typical woke Gen-Z vulgarity.
True, Harris has repeatedly insisted that Israel has a right to defend itself and yes she’s yet to agree to an arms embargo against Jerusalem. But Harris also been far more critical of Israel’s Gaza campaign than her boss, President Biden, and has repeatedly called for a ceasefire. She would also be much more likely to facilitate that ceasefire than her Republican rival, Donald Trump, who’s indicated he supports Israel’s “total victory” strategy in Gaza. But like so many “woke” causes, committing to Palestine demands complete fealty and allegiance – even at the expense of your own best interests. And so the TikTokers – many hysterical and ranting through tears – accuse their Black American allies of nothing less than treason for wanting one their own to win the White House.
Meanwhile, in real life, similar confrontations have been brewing both before and after Harris ousted Biden in late July. Last week, for instance, a pro-Palestian crowd – many openly holding posters of Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar – descended upon a Harris fundraiser at a Harlem restaurant in Manhattan. Proving that no space is safe from anti-Israel extremism, the event saw a speech by New York City African-American Mayor Eric Adams – a Black man campaigning for a Black woman in the heart of Black-American culture – silenced and drowned out by protestors demanding we “normalize the intifada.”
Back in April, pro-Palestian activists mounted an even more aggressive – and aggressively racist – attack against US Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thompson-Greenfield. The Ambassador, who is Black, was speaking at an event organized by George Washington University to encourage young African-Americans to pursue careers in the foreign service. Chanting loudly outside the venue, the protestors – implying Thompson-Greenfield was some sort of race-traitor and “Zionist” puppet – branded her “imperial and blackface” for vetoing a series of UN cease-fire resolutions.
Similar allegations of race betrayal were meted out to a Black Vanderbilt University officer during yet another pro-Palestinian melee that same month. “You are Black in America, and you’re not standing with the marginalized people of the world,” the protestors shouted at him. “What does that make you?”
Despite aggressive championing by progressive media, the connections between African-Americans and pro-Palestine advocates have always been tenuous. Back in 2016, during the early days of the #blacklivesmatter protests, the movement’s joint leadership committee issued a formalized platform placing anti-Zionism at the center of its agenda. But why? Embracing now-familiar tropes such as “genocide” and “apartheid state,” the #blm document was met with plenty of outcry from Jewish groups – but little explanation from #blm about how the need for ending anti-Black racism demands, say, boycotting Israel-made goods and services.
Nearly a decade on, the myth of Black-Palestinian symbiosis has only grown stronger in the wake of Hamas’ attack on Israel last October 7th. Buoyed by relentless mainstream media attention, the assertions that Blacks and Palestinians suffer under shared systems of “oppression,” segregation and militarized brutality have become so ubiquitous that major pro-Black groups – from prominent Black pastors in late January to the NAACP in June – have formally called for a ceasefire in Gaza.
But these claims of allegiance are not merely sensational, they reveal the flawed logic of intersectionality that demands all marginalized cohorts identify with all marginalized cohorts. Such simplistic thinking may make for convenient, clicky headlines, but it’s failing to stand up to the complex loyalties of African-Americans now leaning deep into Kamala Harris’ historic White House run. And Black activists refuse to stay silent as they’re accused of abandoning Palestinians after nearly a year of sacrifice and solidarity.
“We spend our money with you … we stand in solidarity with you, and you keep asking for more … it’s never enough,” one Black tiktoker retorted. “These are people who feel like they are entitled to the support of Black people no matter what,” she continues. “That they get to push us around and tell us who the hell we get to vote for … they’ve lost their minds.”
Indeed, the fury of these Arab influencers is as myopic as it is misdirected. It also reflects the thought canyons and yes bubbles in which so much of the extreme left have cozily cloistered themselves. How else to explain the coordinated Gaza protest plans for this week’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago, which will see tens of thousands rally against the woman they call “Killer Kamala” as she accepts the Democratic nomination for president.
For Black people – particularly Black women, the most loyal Democratic voting block – Harris’s ascent feels nothing less than miraculous. But for pro-Palestinian groups, Harris is nothing less than calamitous.
“It’s not going to make a difference, that [Harris] represents this administration,” said Hatem Abudayyeh, chair of the US Palestinian Community Network. “We’re going to stay full steam ahead.”
Desperate and running out of new ideas, such strategies may make sense to Arab-Americans – but they will do little appese African-Americans now looking to make history in November.
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